After refilling both of the woman’s water bladders and purifying them, Aidan returned to the camp to the two women talking, their voices low and tense. He hesitated before reentering the clearing when he heard his name, followed by:
“Be careful not to kill him.”
“I don’t want to kill nobody, ’specially not him.”
Larkin laughed darkly. “Be careful all the same. Many things can go wrong in the heat of the moment…especially when you’re not quite yourself.”
What the devil were they talking about? Should I be worried? He waited in silence to see if his question would be answered. But he shifted his weight to his left foot, and a twig snapped beneath his boot.
“Ah, he’s back,” said the seer.
Aidan adjusted the expression he knew he must be wearing and returned the bladders to Larkin, who took another swig. “Is there nothing you can tell us?” Perhaps if he kept her talking, she would give away what they had been speaking of before.
“Let me look.” She held up her hand for him to be quiet and closed her eyes. Her body shook a little at first, her eyes visibly moving beneath her eyelids. Whatever she saw, it made her frown, but whether it was out of concern or confusion, Aidan could not tell. After some time, Larkin opened her eyes again, her face set in a grim expression. “It’s going darker even sooner.”
“And you nay know what that means, yes? When does it happen?” Slaíne asked.
Larkin hushed her. “You’ve already asked me that. I cannot say, for fear of unraveling the future.” She shuddered and turned to Aidan. “There is someone out there looking for you.”
That was alarming news, to be certain. “Meraude?” Hot dread dropped to his stomach like lead, and he chastened himself for it. Did he not wish to find the mage and finish her? She had, after all, been responsible in some way for his parents’ deaths. He was no coward. Where was this fear coming from?
But Larkin shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Meraude believes you will come to her, that you are working under her orders. Nothing has led her to believe otherwise. It is a woman who seeks you, but her path is hard to see and has many holes in it as well. It’s almost as if someone is interfering with my Sight. But how could that be possible?”
“Does she work with or for our shape-shifting friend?” Aidan nodded toward the bronze sword, which still lay on the ground nearby.
“Neither, milord. I believe she is working with another man, and from the bits and pieces I have seen, I assume he is a guard of some sort. They seem harmless, but that means nothing in this world. Most flowers are as lethal as they are beautiful.”
Aidan could only too readily nod his agreement. “And what of Cedric’s tomb? Do we find it?”
Again the seer made a hushing sound. “Do not ask me, milord. You do not want to know.”
He did, in fact, want to know, and he said so. “What is it with you women and your mysteries?”
“A ‘flattering’ tongue like that leaves me in little wonder of why you are still a bachelor.” But she smirked as she said it. “I will tell you this, though, for I think this will have the best impact at the vital time: in the heat of the moment, when all seems lost, two minds and hearts joined together are better than two torn apart when you need to make a sudden departure.” She looked at him meaningfully, but the riddle’s answer escaped Aidan.
He stared at her in baffled silence. No words would form on his lips that could express how very much he wished to strangle the woman right now. After small talk, riddles were his least favorite form of communication.
Slaíne broke the silence with a string of colorful words. “What the devil is that? Some useful seer you are.” She swore some more.
Larkin was unmoved, but sat there and looked on as if she were watching two children throwing a tantrum. When Slaíne stopped swearing, the seer got to her feet. “Well, now that that’s out of the way, I’d best move on.” She stretched her legs and put a hand to her lower back.
“What? I thought you might come with us,” said Slaíne, her face falling.
Admittedly, Aidan had thought the same thing, but he hid his surprise and made no protest. “How are your provisions?”
The seer pulled her pack from her back and showed Aidan the contents. “Plenty to last me ’til I reach the next town.” Her eyes crinkled around the corners and she turned to Slaíne. “Our paths will cross again…if we don’t all die first.” Perhaps it had been meant as a joke, but Aidan was unsure. She laughed, and Slaíne joined in half-heartedly.
“Where are you bound?” he asked, hoping for no more riddles.
“I think I’ll head north for now.” Larkin adjusted the strap of her pack. “I have some unfinished business that needs tending to.” A shadow passed over her features and did not leave, though she smiled. When she spoke again, her voice was strained. “I suppose it would not be breaking any rules to follow you a little ways. That Pull, where is it leading you today?”
Aidan was not fooled by her cheerful demeanor, but he did not press her, though Slaíne seemed barely able to contain her questions and concern. “The Pull,” he said, “is leading me north and a little ways west today. It feels like we’re getting closer…but I cannot be certain.”
Of course the woman’s face betrayed nothing, curse it all. “Very well. Let us travel north and a little ways west. Once you’ve broken your fast in due course, that is. Eat slowly, though. Fighting assassins first thing in the morning can be trying on the stomach.”
“I’d imagine so.”
“Not fer me,” said Slaíne, rising as if she had not just put a crack in a solid oak with her body. “I’m half-starved.”
On that announcement, Aidan Summoned some of the foodstuffs he had stolen from the Spinning Cup Inn: half of a ham and some more brown bread. He had been clumsy with his aim, and the meat landed not on a stone as he had intended, but in the dirt. No one seemed to mind, though. As Slaíne hacked into the meat with a knife from the seer, they broke the bread and ate of it, talking merrily and catching slabs of the sweet and salty meat that Slaíne would toss them from time to time. Before long, more than a quarter of the ham was gone, and he Dismissed the leftovers as they downed the last of the somewhat stale bread. Aidan passed around a bladder twice, and then Dismissed the rest of their camp.
“You should take it,” Larkin said, nodding at the bronze sword.
“You foresaw something?” Aidan asked half-jokingly, his lips twisting up in a sarcastic smile.
The seer said nothing, but winked and began to walk the exact path he had intended to take. Slaíne stood there, watching as Aidan bent over and retrieved the shape-shifter’s blade.
“This reminds me of your sword,” he said, testing the balance of it. “Different metal, different Pull, but….”
Slaíne stepped forward. “Lemme see.”
He made to hand her the blade, but she shied away from it. “What’s wrong? You’re paling.”
She shook herself and pulled away. “I dunno. It just don’t feel like it wants me to touch it. Better not. It did, after all, try ter kill me.”
Aidan shook his head and Dismissed the strange blade, along with the silver one. He noted, with bewilderment, that the two would not Dismiss at the same time, Slaíne’s disappearing moments later than it should have. He said nothing of it, and followed the seer and Slaíne down the narrow path that was to take him, eventually, to the tomb of Cedric the Elder and the means to his revenge.
Chapter Thirteen
Aidan
The three travelers walked in near silence for the duration of an hour. Larkin kept stopping mid-step, closing her eyes, and then nodding before moving onward. She did this five times within the first twenty minutes, and Aidan wondered if it had been a mistake allowing her to join their party. The longer she dallied, the farther away the Pull of the magical battlegrounds seemed. It must have indee
d been moving.
Aidan said nothing about their pace at first, however, hoping that the seer was merely lost in her thoughts and would soon hasten her steps. The morning was fine, and the air held promise of the hot months to come. There was enough cloud and tree cover to keep the sun off their faces as the way became more uphill. Birds sang overhead. The way was clear, and there seemed to be no immediate problems other than the snail’s pace they were keeping. Then why was Aidan feeling so anxious? Gritting his teeth as one hour melted into the next, he set his eyes on Slaíne, whom he had been avoiding since they had left the encampment. It was no better with her. Something strange was afoot, and Aidan could neither discern what was happening nor what might yet happen.
At last, when the third hour of their journey approached, Larkin stopped and sat down at the base of a tree and motioned for Aidan and Slaíne to do the same. “This is where I leave you, I’m afraid. My own curse will allow me to go no farther this way.”
Aidan frowned.
“What do you mean by your own curse?” Slaíne demanded.
The seer rolled her eyes and leaned back against the trunk of the tree. “Just what I said. Never you mind the rest.” Her expression softened. “I know you’re angry with me for keeping such a slow pace, but I can say everything has a purpose in the end. Why don’t you rest for a while, the both of you?”
It did not sound like half a bad idea. Aidan rubbed his shoulder, which had begun to prickle, indicating that he was about to be dragged into the Beyond. Still he hesitated. “I don’t know.” He gave Slaíne an uneasy look, but she seemed to be avoiding him as well. “There’s still a lot of daylight left, and I would very much like to make it at least another ten miles before nightfall.” In truth he felt ready to fall over and knew that traveling ten miles uphill before night was out of the question.
Slaíne decided for him. “I ain’t movin’ another step until I’ve et and slept.” With that said, she sat next to the seer and at last looked in Aidan’s general direction with expectation.
“Seems as though we’re not going anywhere for a while,” said Larkin, grinning. “Summon a feast, milord, for I feel we’ll need all the strength we can get for the hours ahead.”
What was meant by that? Aidan wondered…. Still, he did not argue or voice any of the many questions pressing on him. Instead Aidan Summoned the remainder of the ham, some cheeses, fruits, and bread, plus one of the waterskins. Two had been drained in their hike that day. He would need to find another stream soon and replenish their supply.
“Are you sure you shouldn’t sit down, milord?” asked Larkin as Slaíne tore into the meat.
Though he fought the pull of the Beyond, Aidan was reluctant to give in to it. The thought of his soul leaving his body still frightened him somewhat and was a disorienting sensation. But it would seem that he was being left little choice.
Oh, quit being so dramatic, said the voice of Salem in the back of his mind. He gave Aidan another tug, and Aidan almost blacked out right then and there.
“All right,” Aidan said after a moment, moving to a tree to the left of Larkin and Slaíne. He knew it was no use fighting the supernatural in this instance. No sooner had he sat down than the world around him went black and he faded into the Beyond.
He stood in the middle of the orchard back on his childhood estate, and, as expected, Salem was waiting for him. The two men regarded each other in silence for a moment, before Aidan swore at him. “What the devil did you mean by hitting me in the head with a shovel?”
The young man’s face went red and he shook his head. “I’m sorry about that, Aidan. There would be consequences if you stayed here too long, for you and for the Beyond. Can you forgive me?”
Aidan waved away the other’s words. “What consequences?”
Salem drew in a deep breath and began. “Well, to begin with, you’ll be unable to leave if you stay too long.”
“Oh, brilliant.”
The young man’s expression darkened further. “Oh, that isn’t the half of it.” He ducked his head, as if reluctant to confide. “No one but Treevain and I really want you visiting here. Nare’ve was particularly upset to find out that I’ve been bringing you here.” He must have read the confusion on Aidan’s face, for he said, “The Nymph Queen. She’s power-mad, Aidan. And you’re a threat.”
“But she was the one who stabbed me with her ice blade in the first place,” Aidan said, spluttering slightly as he spoke. He recalled trying to escape the murderous nymphs, how Slaíne had realized the connection between light and the creatures’ life-force. He’d Dismissed the wood powering their fires, causing the beings to die and vanish in moments. Before the nymph queen’s time was up, she had hastily stabbed Aidan in the shoulder with her blade. At the time, Aidan had assumed it was out of revenge. It had caused him to have many strange visions, and that is when his conversations with Salem in the Beyond had begun. “Why the devil would she make the connection between the Beyond and me possible if she didn’t want me visiting?”
“I don’t know, Aidan.” Salem motioned for Aidan to follow him into a cluster of trees, and lowered his voice. “Some strange things are going on here, things no one is talking to me about. Armies are on the move.”
That startled Aidan. “There are armies in the land of the dead? For what purpose?”
“I told you I don’t know,” said Salem, and Aidan knew him to be truly upset and afraid. “As I said, no one is talking to me.” The man took to pacing, his hands balled into fists as he made trails in the tall grass. “The elves are shunning some of us. The nymphs are training in camps, though I know I was not supposed to see them.”
“What are their numbers?”
Salem threw his hands up in the air. “I don’t know. I can only hear them from the valleys when I can sneak close enough. Their numbers are great.” He turned to Aidan and stopped his frantic back-and-forth walking. “But that is not anything for you to worry about. You are alive.” His tone was bitter, and Aidan could not think of what to say in response. Like a dog Salem shook himself, his composure returning. “How is your progress with the—” He looked around them first. “Is anyone nearby?”
Aidan shook his head; he felt no Pulls. “Continue.”
“Have you found…it?” He hesitated. “When you find it, Aidan, Treevain says to use it at once. She seems to think something bad is about to happen, and she wants you to have all the luck you can get on your side.”
Aidan grimaced. “We were attacked this morning.”
“By who? Did Tristram follow you?” The name was like sulfur coming from his mouth, full of bitter heat and ash. He motioned for Aidan to sit, throwing himself to the ground.
Aidan watched as the man tore at long blades of grass, stopping when he found the size he wanted, apparently, and began knotting it.
“A shape-shifter has been following us. It killed a man back in a town we were staying in, and it caught up to us, taking my form and…. Are you all right?” Aidan was driven to distraction, watching Salem tearing and knotting grass with such vigor and hatred, as one quite distracted and disturbed.
The man gave him an abrupt nod. “What happened with the shape-shifter? Where is he now?” Salem did not look up from his hands’ task.
“Dead. He attacked me, I stabbed him in the throat, and he vanished.”
Salem’s hands stopped working on the knot, and he looked at Aidan, eyes wide. “What? That’s impossible.”
It was Aidan’s turn to be distraught. “What do you mean by impossible? Don’t all magic folk disappear from my realm and come here when they die?”
The man’s face had paled considerably, and there was a wobble in his voice when he spoke. “They do, Aidan. But the last arrival into the Beyond was a week ago. We have had no shape-shifters join our numbers for years.”
The two men looked at each other, eyes wide. “Are you sure—”
<
br /> “I’m certain. Everyone knows when new kin take up residence here. You’re different, since you’re not actually here, per se.” Salem jumped to his feet. “Your shape-shifter assassin is still out there, Aidan.” He began to chew on his lower lip, and then swore. “Blimey, I shouldn’t have brought you here. I had no idea. Your – your mind has been harder to latch on to lately. It’s almost as if someone or something powerful is getting in the way.”
Aidan tried to hide his shudder, and clasped his clammy hands behind his back. “Slaíne’s Pull is very powerful. Perhaps that is interfering.” He had enough to worry about. There was no need to add to the drama surrounding his current quest.
Shaking his head, Salem took to pacing again. “No, Pulls are all on you. They’re how you perceive things. It must be the shape-shifter interfering with our connection.”
The thought was unsettling, but it was the best explanation, as reluctant as Aidan was to accept it. “The…the land where the Goblet lies feels close. We should be there within—”
“Do not speak so freely, Aidan. Keep information from everyone, even your lady friend. Information is power.” Without warning, Salem leapt to his feet. “I am sorry about hitting you with the shovel. But I might have been cast out, had I been found with you.”
That made Aidan start. “You can leave the Beyond?”
Salem pulled a face. “I-I don’t think it’s quite like that. More like forced to cease existing in any capacity.” He shuddered. “In case I don’t see you again….”
“I’m sure our paths will cross again. You always seem to show up at the strangest of times…wanted or not.” Aidan had meant the words in jest, but Salem’s scowl deepened.
“Fine, then. Just go.” Salem turned his back and started to walk away.
“It was a joke, Salem. That’s all.”
Salem turned around and smiled sadly. “That’s not my name, Aidan. Farewell.”
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